Tech

Friday, 16 December 2011

Gadget of the Year 2011 – Laptops

Despite the fact that tablets have been one of the hottest trends of 2011, notebooks are going to be around ...

Despite the fact that tablets have been one of the hottest trends of 2011, notebooks are going to be around for a long time to come as they’re still the devices to beat, in terms of both, productivity as well as multimedia functionality. 2011 saw the term notebooks getting a brand new segment called ultrabooks, in addition to the inexpensive and popular netbooks. Even though there weren’t any breakthroughs in the notebook section, we did have a few of them stand out against the rest. Let’s start off with the second runner up.

Acer have more often than not provided value for money and better spec’d laptops, as compared to similarly priced ones, with a few trade offs here and there that ensure that the product still has room for improvement. The Acer Aspire TimelineX 5830TG follows the same trend. The 5830 comes with an Intel Core i5 processor running at 2.3GHz that can be turbo-boosted upto 2.9GHz. The 15.6 inched notebook runs on an NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M graphics card with NVIDIA’s Optimus technology. There’s 3GB DDR3 of RAM and a 640GB hard disk space, so storage options are pretty much covered.

The Acer Aspire TimelineX 5830TG

The reason why we put the TimelineX 5830TG as the second runner up for laptop of the year is that it offers good value for money and will cater to an average user’s requirements without burning a hole in their pocket. It has got a lot of features packed in that light chassis with all round good looks, good performance and an extended battery life.

Winner of our Editor’s choice award, the super thin 11-inch Macbook Air is one of Apple’s finest looking products. Its design and aesthetics, coupled with its ultra portable feature weighed heavily on our mind, whilst giving the product this prize. Apple has various models for the Macbook Air, based on the configuration, but the one we’re talking about has an Intel Core i5 processor running at 1.6GHz with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD storage.

The Apple Macbook Air

Based on the specs alone, the Air definitely doesn’t make heads turn. But that’s where the shortcomings stop. The keyboard and trackpad is extremely responsive and the laptop has a powerful battery life. This one’s not a value for money laptop, like the earlier nomination; it’s solely featured on the list due to its brilliant design, ultraportability and performance.

The Asus G74SX is the ultimate desktop replacement notebook you can get. Asus gets our coveted award is for its brilliant design, ergonomics and raw performance. The G74SX has a rubber finish coating and the internals are designed in such a way that heat dissipation is easily facilitated via the back. The laptop keyboard sit at an angle on the chassis making it a brilliant option for long hours of typing.

The Winner! The Asus G74SX Notebook

The primary focus of the G74SX is gaming and it does a brilliant job at it. It’s powered by a Core i7 Sandy Bridge CPU, along with 16GB DDR3 memory. There are two 750GB hard drives underneath the chassis, so you’ll never run out of storage. The full HD 17.3 inched laptop has an Nvidia GTX 560M graphics card with 3GB of GDDR5 dedicated memory and the in-built speakers support EAX Advanced HD 5.0 and THX TruStudio sound enhancements. Even the latest 3D games can be easily rendered on the G74SX with solid framerates. What’s more, it has a Blu-Ray drive and NVIDIA’s 3DVision transceiver. So, pop on the 3D glasses and you’re all set for 3D gaming and 3D movies.

Besides gaming, the G74SX is also a powerful media consumption and productivity notebook. The price tag may seem a little high, but you’re getting a lot for your money, which is why the Asus G74SX is our Notebook of the Year 2011.

Ultrabooks are picking up and the Lenovo U300s is a brilliant evidence of that. The U300s is powered by a Core i5 2467M CPU, running at 1.6GHz with a Turbo frequency of up to 2.3GHz. It’s based on the same Sandy Bridge architecture and features HyperThreading with a low TDP of 17W. Other components include, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 128GB SSD for storage. The laptop has a unibody aluminium chassis, which makes it durable as well as sophisticated.

The Lenovo U300s Ultrabook

The U300s is an honorable mention because it has a brilliant design; it’s both powerful and functional and basically has all the essentials covered for those who are constantly on the move. Sure, it doesn’t have an optical drive or a LAN port, but their usage is decreasing by the day, with everything now operating via USB ports. To round it off, it comes with USB 3.0, HDMI and an SSD as well.